


he glitters in the dark

by cuddlebros



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future Fish, Comfort/Angst, Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, Getting Together, Halloween, Injury, Injury Recovery, Minor KNB and Haikyuu!! Character Appearances, Multi, No Plot/Plotless, very light angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-27
Updated: 2015-04-10
Packaged: 2018-02-22 21:14:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 14,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2522009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cuddlebros/pseuds/cuddlebros
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rin and Sousuke take a Halloween night patrol that drags a well-meaning fireman (literally) into their arms. Adventures ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. things that go "yowch" in the night

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much clottedcurls for the beta and all your support and time!!

“Whose idea was Halloween, anyway? It’s _asking_ for trouble – hordes of unaccompanied kids, _at night_ , wandering the streets in costumes. Why did we take this shift again?” Rin groans, trying his best to slump his shoulders while continuing along the path. Next to him, Sousuke chuckles a little. Rin sends him a grin.

“They’re having fun, Rin. Let them be. You were a cute little kid running around like a ghost trying to trick your way into candy not too long ago.”

“I was not cute,” Rin grumbles, “and I was a _vampire_ , Sou. Ghosts aren’t my thing.”

“Of course you were, with those teeth,” Sousuke deadpans, face straight as he can keep it.

Rin’s punch is expected, and he’s just about to launch into one of his everlasting spiels about how _normal_ his teeth are, and how really, everyone else is just _wildly over-exaggerating_ , when he hears something. He stops in his tracks, and grabs hold of Sousuke to make sure he does the same.

“Sousuke, listen.”

Sousuke, being the dutiful best friend he is, stops. He hears nothing, and is about to tell Rin so, when -

“That’s not human, Rin.”

And he’s right. They’ve made it as far as the public park that this part of their patrol route covers, and so far, neither of them have ever heard a sound even remotely like that. It’s like one of the moans from an old, awful, zombie movie, mixed with the keening of an animal that wants to be anywhere else than where it currently is. It’s otherworldly, and odd, and _happening on Halloween_ , so Rin feels justified in wanting to leave it well enough alone. He would have, had it not been for Sousuke’s silent but determined movement towards the noise.

“ _Absolutely not_ , Sousuke Yamazaki. You get back here right now, we’re not going near that thing.”

“We’re the police, Rin. It’s our job. Unless the big and strong Officer Matsuoka is too much of a chic-“

He doesn’t get to finish before Rin is stomping off and into the dark of the park. He smiles fondly at the retreating silhouette before following him, the both of them moving towards the on and off keening before they can overthink it.

Sousuke uses his standard issue flashlight to light the way as they stray from the orange glow of the streetlights and into the slightly unnerving unknown of the park. Why somewhere as regular as a park becomes so sinister at night, Sousuke doesn’t care to dwell on. But Rin’s presence, as well as the flashlight, does more than enough to keep any of his concerns at bay.

Until he spots the flash of something reflective catching the light in the direction of the trees to his right.

He doesn’t startle, he tells himself. He simply directs the beam of light towards the flash and walks steadily towards it, curiosity written on features hidden by the dark. Rin follows suit, just slightly behind him.

By the time they’ve reached the tree, the noises have increased in volume, and also become completely understandable.

In front of them, hanging upside-down by the suspender straps of what looks to be a _very_ convincing fireman outfit, is what seems to be 6 foot 2 of flustered, brown haired man. Neither of them really know what to say, so the three of them engage in an awkward stare off, until the previously unnoticed kitten in the man’s arms starts its unearthly wailing once again.

“Sir, don’t take this the wrong way, but _what the fuck are you doing_?”

The man looks abashed, and turns his gaze towards the ground.

“I was, um. There was a kitten, in the tree, and it looked really scared, so I, uh. I tried to rescue it. Please don’t hurt it.”

“You… tried to rescue a kitten? In a fireman outfit? That’s possibly the most cliché thing I’ve ever heard, oh my god. Are you real?” Rin ribs, crouching down in front of the guy.

“Yeah,” the man laughs, though it looks strained in the harsh light of the flashlight, “I promise I am. Uh, I really appreciate you coming over here but, well - would you mind taking the kitten? I think it’s scared, and my arms are kind of dead from hanging here.”

“Sou, you take it. The last time I tried to touch a cat-” Rin punctuates his sentence with a scrunch of his nose and a shudder. Sousuke does his duty as best friend, and takes the scruffy, frightened but now thankfully silent kitten into his arms. It’s a tabby, a wide eyed little thing from what he can make of it, and he finds himself smiling at it before he can stop himself.

“What about you?” Rin asks, looking towards the guys face. “You need a hand down? You still have time to head to whatever party you must be going to, I guess. It’s not too late.”

“Uh - I mean if it isn’t too much trouble, I think it’d be great to get down. I can feel all the blood in my head and it’s giving me a pounding headache,” he chuckles.

“Nah, this is our job, pretty much.” He hums a little in consideration. “I think if one of us climbed up there, we could get that suspender free, but one of us would have to catch you. Hey, you think you can stretch your arms towards the ground? It’d soften the blow if you landed on them instead your head. Sou, you may have to put the kitten down for a second to catch - uh, what was your name, dude?”

“Makoto, Makoto Tachibana.”

“Yeah, you may have to catch Makoto over here to soften the load on his arms. Don’t look so scandalized, idiot, it’s either that or you climb the tree yourself. You wanna hulk yourself up the tree?” he asks, trying to joke, but pointedly looking at Sousuke’s shoulder as he does. There’s always something uncomfortable about Rin gazing at his injury like that, so he huffs and places his new little friend on the grass, trying to convey the message of “stay put” in his stare. Whether the kitten understands, or just wishes to groom itself and can’t be bothered to move, it’s obedient enough, and Sousuke appreciates it.

“Okay shark week, go put your Junior Gymnastics silver medal to use, I’ve got… Matoko? here covered.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s _Makoto_ , you damn oaf, also shut up and give me a hand here, would you?”

Rin places the flashlight on the ground, angled so that the beam illuminates enough of the area that he can see what he’s doing. He’s hoisted into the tree with minimal issues, but a lot of aggravated mumbling, and Makoto is freed soon enough. Sousuke’s quick reflexes mean that Makoto is caught by the waist before his palms can hit the earth, and is lowered slowly until he’s on the floor, rubbing at his extremities to try and get his blood flowing again. Rin jumps out of the tree and lands near him, while Sousuke goes to retrieve the kitten. They must be a right scene, they all think, but it’s Halloween, and it’s dark, and there’s really no-one even remotely around.

“Thank you guys so much,” Makoto says, standing on shaky legs in front of them, holding his arms out for the kitten. “I have no idea what I would have done if you two hadn’t shown up, so thank you! I’m sorry if I took too much of your time, you must be headed to a really nice party with costumes that good!”

“We’re not heading anywhere, dude,” Rin says, eyebrow arched with incredulity. “We’re actual police officers.”

“Oh! That explains the flashlight. And why you stayed to help me! Thank you, officers,” he replies, trying to bow, but finding it hard with the bundle of fluff in his arms.

“As nice as this is, can we get back to the road now? This place is creepy as anything,” Sousuke interjects. They walk quickly enough to warm Makoto up, the chill October air making him regret leaving his jacket at the station. Deceptively warm afternoons, he tells himself to remember, lead to chilly evenings.

When they make it back to the pavement, it’s their first real look at each other. Makoto is no longer just an almost-as-tall-as-Sousuke shadow, he’s a muscled, green-eyed, soft-expression carrying, certified cutie - not that either of them would ever use that word. It’s a shame that they probably won’t see him again, they both think, because he looks like the sort of person that both of them would _certainly_ like to get to know.

For his part, Makoto is amazed not only at the fiery red hair of the shorter officer, but also the carefully assessing eyes of the taller, black haired man. The pair look like chalk and cheese, but from what he’s seen of them so far, he’s already enamoured by their chemistry. He stops daydreaming about them for long enough to think about the fact that he really needs to get home soon if he’s going to get more than 5 hours sleep before his next shift, and he has yet to thank them properly.

“Uh, did you say that you two were real police? So you work at the station right next to the fire station, right?”

“Yeah,” Rin replies, cautiously.

“I work in the fire station next door! If you’re free, I mean, if you wanted to - the two of you - would you mind if I bought you a coffee or something sometime to thank you? You really saved me, and this little one,” he pauses, smiling down at the kitten to ruffle it a little under the chin, “and I’d like to thank you properly.”

“Uh, no offence, dude, but shouldn’t you be looking to, I don’t know, _go get checked out at a hospital_ before you start asking us out?”

“You _were_ upside down for an unnaturally long time,” Sousuke agrees.

Makoto just laughs them off, and they both find their eyes widening at a sound so carefree, because how can a sound that contrasts so much from the sounds he was making earlier, the sounds that lead them to him, be so unexpectedly enchanting?  “I’m fine, I’m fine. I’ll sleep it off soon enough. But coffee, tomorrow, is that okay with you two?”

“Well.” Rin looks up to Sousuke, receiving an almost imperceptible nod. It doesn’t slip past Makoto’s notice, but he was never going to bring it up. “I think we could do that.” He flashes Makoto a bright grin, and he’s thankful that Makoto’s dopey smile doesn’t wane in the least at the sight.

“Great! Thank you guys again! I think I’m going to need to get this little one somewhere warm and with food now, so, is 11 good for you tomorrow? I finish my shift at 10:30, so…”

“11 is good. We’re on a break then,” Sousuke says.

“Brilliant! Well, I really look forward to it, see you guys tomorrow!” Makoto enthuses, then giving another half-bow, before walking off quickly with his charge still held in strong arms.

“Did we-”

“I think we did.”

“Well. We have a date tomorrow. That’s new.”

Sousuke hums in agreement.


	2. coffee is a serious business

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Makoto has a way of carving his way into hearts with little else but a smile and a warm conversation. Rin and Sousuke find themselves craving both of those things quickly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a first date, but is it really a first date? hm

It wasn't that they were skirting around their feelings, as a lot of people seemed to assume. Sousuke and Rin both knew how much they meant to each other, but - as seemed to be a running theme within their friendship - the timing was never quite right.

At first it was joining the force. They roomed together, as best friends do, and it was brilliant. But it also meant that both understood just how exhausted the other was, and each had to witness first hand every issue that afflicted the other. Beginning a job was never easy, never mind one as draining as police work (they never even seemed to have time or energy spare to have a throw down), and both of them seemed to feel that, although they were heading towards one, it wasn't quite the time to change the nature of their relationship so much. (Sousuke was never going to refuse to wait for Rin.)

Then there was Sousuke’s injury - and the physical and emotional therapy that he’d needed to start recovering from it - and though Rin was there for him, it inevitably took a toll on their friendship. It strained and pulled and tore every time Rin showed concern about Sousuke’s health and Sousuke would clam up and refuse to speak to him about anything for days. Every time Rin would go to wake him in the morning, only to be met with him struggling against his sheets, tears shed unwittingly in his sleep as he recounted those tortuous memories, and Rin couldn’t comfort him, because the last time he had tried had made Sousuke so _livid_ that Rin had honestly thought that he’d attack him. It was messy, and tough, and though some nights Rin would sleep on someone else's couch because he knew Sousuke didn’t want to see him, he always came back eventually. (Rin was always ready to wait for Sousuke.)

Coming to terms with the damage done to their relationship, and the beginnings of working to patch the parts that had stretched too far, brought them to where they were now. Best friends through it all, stronger in terms of relying on each other, but still bearing the scars of the mistakes and missteps they’d made not long ago. Which is why, really, the idea of both of them bonding over a certain tall, tanned and handsome fireman was questionable at best.

They both worked best in questionable territory.

 

* * *

 

“Ready?”

“Mmh.”

“Let’s head over then.”

Rin shouts an announcement of their departure into the heart of the station, and receives a sort of non-committal acknowledgement of a grunting noise from whom he can only assume is the half-asleep Officer Daiki. It’s not like either of them were looking for much more, so he just snorts and shakes his head a little, fondly. The station really was like another home.

The walk across to the fire station only takes a minute, and that’s only because they have to walk the entire way out of the property before they can reach the ever-empty driveway of the adjacent station. Sousuke’s silence is comforting. Sousuke being silent means that Sousuke is unconcerned, and if there’s nothing for him to worry about, then it means there’s no reason for Rin to worry. This was just a thankful (slightly dweeby, totally hot) guy, taking the two of them out for coffee. Nothing more. Nothing less.

It’s quieter than the police station, is the first thing they notice. Rin assumes it’s because all of the fire-fighters are upstairs, and absent-mindedly wonders if Sousuke prefers the quiet of this place over the hubbub of their workplace.

“‘Scuse me, officers, can I help you?”

They both turn to face the voice, and find a scruffy looking redhead with a curious expression staring at them. He looks like he’s just about to head upstairs, presumably to clean up, but he’s kind enough to stop to assist them.

“Brunette, ‘bout your height. Probably smiling,” is the extent of Sousuke’s description.

“Ah, Makoto?”

“That’s the one. He’s not in any trouble, we promise. As long as he’s here, that is,” Rin reassures the guy.

“Sure. Can’t imagine Mako getting into trouble with the law anyway,” he chuckles. “I’ll get him for ya.”

‘Getting him’ seems to only involve the guy shouting his name up the stairwell, then shouting that there were ‘cops here’ for him. Delicacy clearly wasn't this guy’s strong suit.

It doesn't matter, really, because the next moment carries the sound of Makoto’s hurried footsteps towards them. The ray of sunshine that streams into the reception of the station has little to do with the overcast skies, and everything to do with the appearance of the warm presence at the door of the stairwell. Makoto looks ruffled enough that Sousuke assumes he’d rushed to get down to them, and once again catches himself thinking that this grown man is really the cutest thing he’d ever seen.

“Rin! Sou-”

“Sousuke.”

“Of course! I was just about to come and look for you next door.”

“Wanted to make sure you wouldn’t back out of that offer,” Rin says, grinning wide. “Police officers take their coffee very seriously, you know.”

“Very,” Sousuke says with feigned solemnity.

“Good luck, Tachibana,” the redhead says, patting Makoto roughly on the back before absconding up the stairs.

“Friend of yours?” Rin asks, curiosity getting the better of him.

“Yeah, Taiga. He’s been here about as long as me, which is to say not very long at all,” Makoto answers. His smile only grows as he talks about his friends, and after he ushers them out and towards the coffee shop down the road, neither Rin nor Sousuke complain when he speaks of nothing else.

 

* * *

 

Coffee was, in fact, a very serious business for Sousuke. He liked what he liked, and was inconsolable if he didn’t get what he wanted. This meant that in the break room, nobody even bothered to ask if he wanted anything, knowing full well he’d end up making his own because theirs failed to meet his tastes.

He doesn't enter the coffee shop with the others with high expectations, but apparently this Makoto guy has good enough taste to find somewhere that served decent drinks. He snorts slightly at Rin’s order, and finds that elbow that he’s become well acquainted with lodges itself into his side once again. Makoto waves him away when he attempts to pay for his own coffee, and he’s almost annoyed until he sees the expression he pulls. He muses about all of the shit Makoto must’ve gotten away with as a kid with expressions like that as he carries his coffee back to the table.

They sit and talk, and Makoto thanks them once again for helping him. Sousuke is quick to tell him to make that thanks his last, because if he hears it one more time he will _personally_ make sure that Makoto ends up back in the tree. Again, Makoto answers with that charming, open smile, and laugh like a clear summer day - he’s bumping Sousuke’s heart rate up to unreasonable levels, and he can feel the pounding ache at his bad shoulder, something he  hasn’t felt since his last intensive foot chase. Rin is much the same; eyes a little wider, inhaling a little more.

Makoto is so easy to talk to that the conversation lasts until well past the end of their first round of drinks. Topics range from how they all ended up in public service (Sousuke found his way there by serendipity, Rin followed Sousuke, and Makoto had dreamed of being a fireman since he was a little kid) to their swimming (Sousuke favouring the butterfly when he could, Rin enthusing about not only the butterfly, but his freestyle crawl, Makoto waxing lyrical about the joys of backstroke) to their co-workers. Rin is surprised by how open Sousuke manages to be with Makoto, how easily he lets slip a few of his precious smiles. He’d be jealous if he wasn’t feeling the exact same way.

It’s after their third round of coffees that Rin hears his beeper go off.

“Shit, Sou, it’s urgent.”

“Damn,” Sousuke mutters, grabbing for his hat and putting Rin’s on his head at the same time.

“You guys should get going, huh? Well, thank you for your company, I had a great time talking to you!”

“Us too! Ah, Sou, pass me a napkin or something would ya?”

He scrawls something messily on the napkin with the pen in his breast pocket, grabbing onto Sousuke’s arm while running out the door with the two of them shouting hasty goodbyes behind them.

For his part, Makoto deflates with a sigh as soon as they’re out of sight. He didn’t get to say a proper goodbye, he was talking too much, he’d probably never get up the nerve to speak to either of those remarkable handsome officers again -

And then he grabs the napkin, and reads it, and grins unashamedly for the rest of the day.

 

 

 

 

> _WE LIKE YOU. CALL ME, WE’LL ALL DO COFFEE AGAIN_
> 
> _RIN - XXX - XXX - XXX_

 

_Score._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> date date date! backstory! nice! not really but pretend okay
> 
> thank you again to my brilliant beta clottedcurls who is #1 all day every day and somehow doesnt hate me yet
> 
> im still around @ cuddlebros.tumblr.com if you're interested


	3. with everything that sets me back -

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin and Sousuke try to get themselves together enough for Makoto. Without communicating this to him, Makoto starts to feel a little high and dry.

He falls into Rin and Sousuke easily.

It starts with the coffee ‘dates’ that increase exponentially in frequency, where he subconsciously learns their coffee orders (Sousuke: Americano - with 1 sugar if they’d had a long shift; Rin: the most bizarre item on the coffee shop's seasonal menu, every time).

Then it’s the invites to their shared home when the ends of their shifts coincide, where Sousuke cooks while he and Rin collapse on the sofa, and Makoto falls into the habit of swatting away their hands to do the washing up once they’ve all eaten. He would offer to cook, really, but he isn’t one to start fires where he doesn’t need to - he’d rather leave his work at the station. Sometimes he’ll stay over, never worrying about collapsing into a heap of tangled body parts on the floor of their small living room until he wakes up, too hot, in some combination of between and on top of hard chests and comforting arms.

Sousuke allows him to try out the massage oils he wins in the Halloween raffle on his hurt shoulder (Rin takes him aside to thank him, after, because it’s the first time since the physical therapy stopped that Sousuke has let someone other than Rin touch his injury, and it’s an important step to getting him towards going to the massages the therapist suggested for him). Rin never flinches when Makoto runs his hands through his hair when they watch a movie (Sousuke smiles fondly as Rin nestles his head into the comfort of the too-big sweatpants Makoto borrows from Sousuke in a way that lets Makoto know that it’s something he enjoys, too).

It’s the comfortable brand of friendship that Makoto is used to. As much as it differs from the relationship he used to share with Haru, the familarity is the same. It makes sense, then, that he doesn’t think to ask himself why it never feels like he’s the third wheel, even when Rin and Sousuke start holding hands with each other under the table on coffee shop dates, or when he sees them share quick kisses in the empty reception of the police station when they don’t realise he’s coming to find them. If he had to think, he supposes it’s because he’s happy for his new friends - he’d always assumed they’d just been best friends for a long time, so he was happy that they’d managed to get together. He doesn’t seem to realise that it’s because he’s used to moving aside when it comes to things that he wants.

But even happily watching the two of them slowly become more and more enamoured of each other allows Makoto more joy, and more growth, than he’s had since he moved out on his own.

Without Haru around to regulate, Makoto has had to come to rely on himself an awful lot more recently, but his shyness was something that he had yet to fully reign in. For instance, there was no way in hell that the Makoto of two years ago would have been able to meld so easily into the easy friendships the fire station offered him - Taiga, the well meaning, never-ending pit of food with a tendency to blurt out thoughts with no filter; Teppei, the fiercely loyal man with whom Makoto shared the position of ‘station heart of gold’; the short, but powerfully enthusiastic Shouyou - and he just hoped he was making past him proud. Having Rin and Sousuke around had helped to force him to grow.

He’s sure that past-Makoto would at least be happy to know that he was so very thoroughly smitten, here in the not-so-distant future.

 

* * *

 

 

Rin and Sousuke slot together. (Eventually.)

It’s more a conversation than a continuation of the natural flow of their relationship. It’s the fact that one night, after a long, arduous day - brightened only by their planned coffee date - _Rin_ is the one who brings up the elephant that’s been following them around the entire time.

“So. Makoto.”

“Mm.”

“Goddammit, Sousuke. This is _so fucking typical_ of us,” Rin lets out a sigh as he rolls over to face his friend.

“It is,” Sousuke lets out a complimentary sigh as he flops down on his own bed, “but this isn’t something I think we can throwdown for.”

“That really _would_ be typical of us, huh? But really, honestly,” he adopts the tone Sousuke equates with being teased, “I would’ve thought your heart of stone would have stopped you from making so bold a move.”

Sousuke chuckles, low. “Can anyone have a heart of stone around that guy? He’s definitely got _you_ wrapped around his little finger -”

“Like he doesn’t have you in the palm of his hand,” Rin scoffs, eyes rolling playfully.

“ - and I think he’s probably interested. In us.”

“Yeah.”

“I can _feel_ your hesitation.”

“Well, we never really even sorted out _us_ , did we? There’s something… here.” He gestures between the two of them. “But we never managed to sort that out. Can we… can we involve him when we’re not even sure about each other?”

Sousuke quietly hums in consideration. “I don’t think you could do that to Makoto.”

“I probably couldn’t.”

“Want to give him the world.”

“We can’t. Not like this.”

“So what’s your big plan then?”

“Me? I use like 0 forethought, Sou, you know me.”

“It’s true. I was going to suggest that we… give us a go. First. See how it goes. Get stable before we-”

“Initiate the hottest threesome on earth?” Rin leers, eyebrows wiggling in faux-seduction.

“I was going to say enter into a stable relationship with the three of us, but yes, sure,” he says, pointedly fixing his gaze on Rin, across the room.

“This could be a damn good plan. You sure you thought this up yourself?”

“You snarky bastard. Get over here and cuddle.”

“How do you know I want to cuddle?”

“When _don’t_ you want to cuddle, you over-affectionate limpet,” he snickers.

The pillow Rin throws at him is deserved, but Rin uses it to lean his head on when he crawls into Sousuke’s bed to cuddle anyway.

Being in Sousuke’s arms - it feels like progress.

 

* * *

 

 

Eventually, Makoto starts feeling a little weird. It’s probably the shift from knowing he wants his two friends to be happy together to when he starts wanting those two friends to be happy together _with him_. His discomfort with himself reaches it’s peak when they both kiss him on the cheek one afternoon, before leaving to head back to the station.

( _They_ feel that the fact that the two of them managed to peck Makoto on the cheek before leaving him feels a lot like progress, but _he_ feels a lot like his heart is going to spill out of his throat and onto the tiled floor that was always underfoot and then he was going to stand up and slip on it and maybe the headache he’ll get from slamming his skull on the ground will push away the thoughts of them kissing him _again_.)

So, he takes his tried and tested approach to problems - he ignores them. He ignores the longing that drags a heavy weight from his chest to his stomach every time Rin snuggles into Sousuke’s shoulder, or the increase of his heartbeat when Sousuke looks at Rin like he’s the most precious thing on earth. (They both are, to him.)

He immerses himself in what he loves, and what he loves is his work. More shifts mean less time to spend with the happy couple during the day, and gives more credence to his excuses of being ‘too tired’ to hang out with them on evenings. The invites don’t stop coming though, which confuses him - surely they should welcome the idea of having more time together, alone? He keeps turning them down, even though it’s starting to form another cloud of guilt over him, and he finds himself wilting as the days go on. He’d been fine living on his own, but now nothing feels quite right without Rin’s laugh as a soundtrack to his day, or Sousuke’s arm leaning on his shoulder as the weight to keep him on the ground - and he thinks that this must be how it feels to be in too deep.

 

* * *

 

 

“He’s avoiding us.”

“Mmh.”

“Come _on_ , Sou, say something a little more substantial! He’s avoiding us, and you’re just as pissed as I am, so _fucking_ act like it!”

“What part of me suggests that I am _not_ just as pissed off as you are?” Sousuke grits out, and Rin has to concede the point. Sousuke is tense, the hand gripping his mug of coffee white enough at the knuckles that Rin has to thank physics that ceramics don’t crumple like paper, with his jaw wound so tight that the fact he had managed to get out any words at all was borderline miraculous.

Rin sighs, the fight leaving his body as he flops back into his seat. “I’m sorry, it’s just-”

“I understand. It’s fine.”

“Nn.”

Officer Aomine - “ _Daiki,_ ” he always moans, “ _Officer Aomine is who I am when some dodgy teenager is spray painting a wall five damn feet away from me_ ” - walks in then, timing as impeccable as always. It takes him a good minute to read the mood, which, for him, is pretty good going.

“I’d say I want to know what’s got you two so frowny, but I mean. I don’t.”

Sousuke snorts. “Expected nothing less, Daiki.”

“Oi, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing, nothing,” Rin placates, shooting Sousuke a glare.

“I _can_ be invested in other people’s boring lives, I just choose not to be. So tell me what’s up,” he says, slipping into the seat opposite the two of them, with his own mug of coffee sitting on the round table between them.

“It’s nothing you can help with. Unless you know anyone in the fire station next door,” Sousuke replies, jerking his head in the general direction of the adjacent station.

“Just so happens I do.”

“Who?” Rin asks, leaning forward.

“My boyfriend? Stupid looking haircut, redder than the fucking firetrucks that _some_ fool decided it would be a good idea to let him drive.”

“Last name Kagami?”

“Mm. ‘S him. Why, he been giving you grief? Can’t imagine him doing anything to bother anyone other than eating them out of house and home, really.”

“No, no, a, uh, a workmate of his. Makoto?”

“Tachibana, yeah. Nice enough guy. Bit dopey. Surprisingly good at basketball,” Aomine muses, sounding approving.

“This is going to sound...”

“Creepy?”

“A little?”

“Shoot.”

“Would you be able to ask Kagami where Makoto’s staying?”

“Probably. You’re not going to kill him or something, though, right? Just ‘cause you’re officers doesn’t mean they won’t chuck you behind bars, probably.”

“Nah, nothing like that. We have a… gift for him?”

“I don’t wanna know. I’ll ask him.”

“Thanks dude.”

“No worries. You two owe me one though?”

“Each.”

“ _Nice._ ”

 

* * *

 

 

They show up at his door the morning after one of his 14-hour shifts, when he's just about to make his way to bed, and he’s too drained to do anything but let them in. Sousuke makes him breakfast, and Rin makes sure he stays awake for it. When he starts drooping once again, Sousuke picks him up with care and ceremonially deposits him on his bed. They suppose his groans are about the two of them making too much of a fuss over him, but they shut him up with two chaste kisses in quick succession, and demands that he fall asleep.

Joining him in sleep only after having tidied up from breakfast is tougher than planned. Makoto's bed is bigger than either of theirs, and for good reason. Other than the cat that Makoto had tried so valiantly to save all those months ago - and just when did that scrawny little yappy tabby kitten become such an elegant looking adult cat? - there are no less than 5 other cats in various positions on Makoto's bed. They slide in either side of him after careful negotiation of the feline assault course, and the way he melts into their embrace with quiet snores is more than enough for them at the moment.

They'll all have more than enough to talk about in the evening, but this morning is all about showing Makoto how much they love him, and they can't do that with him only semi-sentient.

(He falls into Rin and Sousuke easily, once again, but this time, they slot together with _him_ in tow.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> communication is key man just tALK TO EACH OTHER
> 
> thank you to clottedcurls who is the most supportive ever and is generally outstanding
> 
> you can find me at cuddlebros.tumblr.com where i tend to write about things. there's anime there or something.


	4. - i push back harder to clear the way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Makoto wakes up to warm bodies that afternoon and falls asleep with the same warm bodies, surrounded by the most ridiculous individuals in the world. And cats. Also they may all be in love.

Groaning into wakefulness is normal for Makoto.

Groaning into wakefulness covered by warm bodies is also normal for Makoto.

It’s just that normally, those warm bodies are smaller, and tend to have (give or take) four little padded paws, and don’t snore on him (except for Lola, but she’s an older cat and the vet said she would be fine). Which means that when he finally opens his eyes, he feels, as well as sees, that he _wasn’t_ dreaming when Rin and Sousuke came over in the morning, and that the cat that had caused their paths to cross was really, truthfully, sitting square on Sousuke’s face.

It’s probably the exhaustion that causes him to bubble into laughter at that, because otherwise he would have been a lot more diligent in making sure he didn’t wake up the other two occupants in his bed, but controlling his laughter requires more energy than he has to spare.

Regardless of the fact that he’s only one man on a queen size mattress, he manages to shake awake not only the two men either side of him, but also every cat that doesn’t have its behind planted firmly over Sousuke’s face.

“Mmh, no. Least 10 more minutes. Too warm,” Rin mumbles into his shoulder. Makoto huffs a little laugh out at that, and slips into a doze just as another cat pads over him to make its home on one of his legs.

He wakes up fully when Sousuke flails a little beside him after inhaling a mouthful of cat, only to have said cat - whose name was Elm, after the tree he got Makoto caught up in - end up walking on to his own chest to meow its good morning.

“Demon cat,” murmurs Sousuke, growling at it as he leans upon his elbows to glare at it.

“Elm isn’t a bad kitty, are you Elm?” Makoto nuzzles his nose onto his cats.

“He’s babying his cat already. He just woke up. Why are we in bed with this guy again?” Rin moans as he buries his head into the pillows.

“Mm, I think that’s why we came over here in the first place, isn’t it?”

“Is it?”

“You don’t have to sound so surprised, Mako. You’ve been avoiding us,” Rin purrs.

“Is this a conversation we should really be having in bed? When you two have just woken up?” Makoto laughs, a little uneasy.

“Mmh, no better place to have it. You can’t run away if we have you covered.”

“Covered in arms?”

“Yeha.”

“Nice, a comfortable, familiar environment for me to be in when my two closest friends murder me.”

“We could do, couldn’t we?”

“Bury the evidence,” Sousuke agrees into the pillow he claimed.

“Will you at least look after my cats once I’m gone?”

“Sure. Actually, we may have to end up giving a couple to Kagami.”

“Taiga? No, no, not that guy. If you’re going to give anyone a cat, your best bet is probably Teppei. You’ll love him.”

“Is he a too-good-to-be-true, green-eyed, cat-loving dweeb?”

“...no?”

“Then we definitely don’t love him.”

“Are you…? Really…?” Makoto breathes.

“We love you, is what he wants to say,” says Sousuke.

“I was getting to that!” Rin laughs, slapping towards Sousuke from his side of the bed.

“You were taking too long,” Sousuke complains.

“We _just_ started the conversation!”

“Too long.”

“Uh, guys?”

“ _Shit_ , uh, Mako, yeah we-”

“Love you.”

“Both of you?”

“Both of us. Seperately. And together. We really love you.”

“But you - you’re so happy together?”

“Why do you think that is, doofus?”

“Uhm...?”

“No, see, I’m going to tell him because otherwise he’s not going to get it, so, it’s because of you. That we’re so happy together. I’m emotionally stunted, Rin is often stuck in his own romantic comedy - mentally at least -”

“Oi!”

“-and we’ve both had problems. In the past. Seperately. With each other. But you kind of smooth things out. Smooth us out. You’re all soft and shit. You keep cats. And we both fell in love with you. Damsel in distress or something.”

“You’re oversimplifying it! This isn’t romantic at all,” Rin whines. But Makoto has gone from looking shocked and awed to smiling as wide as can be, and as Rin complains he just - he loses it. He’s full on laughing, again, warm and smiling and _Makoto_ , and it’s pure joy that slips into the room, thick like the the syrup in Rin’s favourite strawberry frappuccino and smooth like the way the both of them slipped into his heart. And Rin follows suit, because they’re three grown men, on a mattress, covered in cats, cuddling into each other as Sousuke sorts out their feelings for each other pretty much singlehandedly.

“The fuck are you two laughing at?” Sousuke mumbles with a grin.

“Because - _god_ , Sou, c’mon, you know how great this is.”

“Mmh.”

“Well, the _unsimplified_ version is that we should really talk more about this over dinner.”

“Officer Matsuoka, are you asking me out?”

“I would be too, if I was alive. Is this corpse invited to the date?” comes Sousuke’s playful contribution, as he rubs small circles absentmindedly on Makoto’s clothed hip, under the covers.

“Do corpses like food?” Makoto asks, starting to softly stroke Sousuke’s hair back from the side of his face that’s facing him while wearing a doting smile.

“I can vouch for the fact that this one does. When he’s reanimated. He may need a kiss to do that, though.”

“I think we can do that,” Makoto whispers, and Sousuke finally takes the time to move his head fully up from his pillow, meeting Makoto halfway for a kiss that is half Makoto’s morning breath at 4:37pm, and half the shot of espresso that Sousuke had made before flopping in to bed beside them - and it’s awful, but it’s like comfort to finally have Sousuke on his lips, and he smiles hard when they part.

“Well. I think you killed _me_ with that, wow. That was so… I think I’m now officially dead. Good run guys, glad we got to all of 5 minutes togeth-mmpf?”

Rin. Rin tastes almost exactly the same, but his kiss is sweeter and softer and so much more like Rin, and the two of them turn Makoto into a pile of fluff between them as they laze the rest of the afternoon away, before finally getting up and out and to a restaurant for the evening.

 

* * *

 

“-and so Sousuke pretty much bit my head off. Every time he saw me. For months. But he was in _pain_ and I was _worried_ -”

“- _an_ d I’m a little bit of a douchebag, _yes_ , Rin, I am-”

“-and so we were sort of... becoming friends again, just before we met you. But before that, we were probably heading for something… different, right, Sou?”

“Mmh.”

“Wow, you guys - I was right, you guys do have a _lot_ of history. But it’s good to know you two care so much about each other, enough to risk your own happiness for each other. Even if it does sound a little ridiculous now.”

“ _Us_? Mako, you know that you did the _exact same ridiculous thing_ for both of us, right?”

“Huh!? Ah, yeah, I guess you’re right,” Makoto says, sheepish hand reaching to rub at his neck. “I can’t imagine you two unhappy together, but, yeah, I just wanted you two to be happ- _oh_ , yes, _yep_ , yes, I see now, it’s all pretty clear now.”

“Yeah, you nerd, you’re just as bad as us,” Rin laughs, nudging Makoto’s leg with his foot under the table.

“And since you came literally falling into our lives, I don’t think we’ve been unhappy. Not once. I don’t think anyone could be unhappy around you, but I think it’s different for us. I think we’re happier because we’re in love with you,” Sousuke says through a mouthful of noodles and beef. “Mm, chilli. No seeds, just a little chilli. Nice.”

“Sou, I think you killed him.”

Otherwise oblivious, Sousuke looks up from his bowl to see Makoto, hands covering his reddening face as he drowns in his own feelings.

“We really need to stop killing loverboy over here. There’s not going to be a Makoto left to snuggle with tonight,” Rin teases.

“ _Snuggle_ ,” he wails through his hands.

Rin sends Sousuke a look, trying his best to communicate ‘ _we have a huge dork on our hands now, because somehow we have convinced this beautiful man to join the clusterfuck that is our - frankly ridiculous, emotionally confusing at best - relationship, and doesn’t the world feel a little brighter?_ ’ without using words. Sousuke smiles back at him.

Maybe soon they’ll be able to communicate with Makoto like that. (Rin hopes it's soon. Sousuke knows it won't take too long.)

 

* * *

 

“You two know you didn’t have to ‘sort yourselves out’ for me, right? I loved you two - I _would_ love you two - regardless, okay?”

“Makoto. Go to sleep. We’re all up in like - like 6 hours.”

“I just wanted you guys to know!”

“Now we know, so now we sleep.”

“Fine. Goodnight, you two.”

“G’night Mako, Sou.”

“Nnnnr.”

“Love you two.”

“Love you guys also.”

“Nnnr.”

“Thanks, Sousuke.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what in the world
> 
> cuddlebros.tumblr.com


	5. sparks behind my eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time moves on for our dynamic trio, and with it comes a new set of responsibilities. Responsibilities bring stress, and Makoto has to try and smooth the stretch between them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is mostly indulgent headcanons expanded a little bit, and me wanting rin and sousuke to tussle. and be angry at each other. because that's always fun.

Over the next 5 months, most of the time they spend together is at Makoto’s apartment.

It’s rare that they don’t end up there at least 4 times a week, mostly because Makoto has the biggest mattress. (He’d bought it because it was semi-secondhand and cheap, but mostly because he needed something big enough to share with his cats, and even though he wasn’t necessarily _embarrassed_ by that fact, it wasn’t something he was sharing with everyone he met.) It's more comfortable - even with the feline lumps they all end up sleeping on from time to time - than crashing on Rin and Sousuke's living room floor. Makoto wistfully remembers the sleeping piles they used to create, but he doesn't miss waking up with an aching back.

Sousuke gets dibs on what ends up in their fridge, because he’s the only one who can decently cook (this only ends up in disaster one time, when Rin moans for an entire week about there not being his favourite kind of yogurt or any lemons until Makoto caves and buys him some of each - much to Sousuke’s displeasure (he’d rolled his eyes with a, “ _one day you’ll learn that_ _you can’t spoil him_ all _the time, Mako_ ,”)). And now the almond oil conditioner in his bathroom explains why Rin always smells like marzipan and Christmas when he buries his nose in his hair. They’re creeping into his apartment, his _life_ , and he loves it.

He loves that he’s now privy to Sousuke’s closet cuddling habits; loves that he knows that even though Sousuke will tease and poke fun at Rin, as he’ll moan and groan at Makoto, there’ll be a trace of a smile underneath that he couldn't detect before.

He loves that both of them will kiss him after they kiss each other when they see him for midday dates - now to restaurants, or sandwich shops, but primarily the coffee shop where they shared their first date - and he loves that seeing them kiss in the reception of either of their stations only makes him feel grateful now, no hint of jealousy or uncertainty.

He loves that Sousuke will hide things on high shelves just to annoy Rin, and even though it might be a little uncomfortable for him, he loves being in the tug of war between bringing things down for his shorter boyfriend and leaving them up to tease him. (Both he and Sousuke enjoy the view of Rin's stomach as he stretches for things.)

It’s the middle of spring when he starts getting put onto day long shifts. 24 hours straight of sitting around, training, eating, and desperately trying to stay awake in case of a call out leaves him exhausted every time he returns home, and the days get more and more hectic as they lengthen. People forget things are cooking, cars skid on puddles caused by spring rain, the chief makes sure that everyone at the station knows how to maintain the trucks as they undergo wear and tear. Makoto needs the money, so he puts his own needs on the back burner to make sure that he can maintain his high standard of work. He doesn’t get stuck up any more trees. (Well, he does, but Kagami or Kiyoshi are always there to help him down. Shouyou would help, but he can never reach.)

When he gets home, he can sleep for 15 hours straight, and he does. It means that Sousuke and Rin have to live without their boyfriend for more time than they’d like, and means they spend every moment they can with him while he’s awake. He maybe gets spoiled more than reason allows, but he appreciates it and tries his best to do what he can for them in return. When he has days off, he cleans the apartment, buys things he thinks they’ll like on the days he can drag himself to town (his exhausted limbs put up little fight against his desire to shower Sousuke in whatever he can find - he’s a sucker for buying his strapping boyfriend anything that catches his eye, and he loves to see the glint of the silver chain he bought for Sousuke when he puts it on after a long day at work) and he slowly begins to teach himself to cook so that they have something warm to return to.

But summer brings responsibilities for them all; Makoto’s only working this much because he needs to travel back to visit his family, and Rin really needs to make time to go and see Gou. Sousuke hasn’t been on the best of terms with his parents for too long, but with this major change in his life, he feels the need to start afresh and include them once again. He needs a clean slate, so that when he introduces the idea of his boyfriends, his parents don’t immediately disown him. At least so that he can grab a few good moments with them to cherish before he returns to having severed ties once again. The idea of seeing them in the interim, the idea of patching a barely-there bridge between them is daunting, but he knows he has to do it, and if he does, then he’ll do it alone.

They talk though, because they’ve learned where a lack of communication gets them, but it’s hard for everyone that they’re all tired all the time, and the fact that each of them has their own upcoming commitments looms over them like a deliberate, impending division.

Makoto is not as surprised as he should be, then, when he wakes up a few nights before he leaves for his parents home to find Rin and Sousuke grappling angrily but quietly on his living room floor. He just sort of stares for a while, because he’s only just woken up and what he really wants is some orange juice to wash the taste of death from his mouth. But he stands and watches, only catching snippets of their conversation as they take turns straddling and growling at each other.

“- to be _more fucking careful_ -”

“- none of your _business_ , leave me _alone_ -”

“- _worrying_ me, asshole -”

“- you’re hung up on my shoulder, which is _fine,_ but you just can’t let go -”

“- can’t deal with the fact that I _care_ about you -”

“- more like _meddling_ -”

“- won’t even tell Mako -”

“- drag him into this -”

“- just take care of yourself for once -”

“- it was just a fucking scuffle, he didn’t even get his hand on me -”

“- he had his hands round your neck, _dickbag_ -”

“...guys?” Makoto asks, quiet and scratchy, because he really wants to hear this in a way that maybe involves none of them being red faced and panting, or rolling around on the ground. Maybe at a table, like the faux-adults they are.

They still, and turn to look at him with guilt and fire burning in their eyes. Rin is red-faced and snarling, Sousuke breathless but stone-faced, and Makoto feels the need to keep them apart like they were Ren and Ran tussling over who got the last slice of cake on their birthday. So he walks over to his overgrown children, picks Rin up and off Sousuke by his collar and lends Sousuke a silent hand to get up and off the floor. He leads them to the kitchen table and sits them down opposite each other, before getting that orange juice he wanted.

He sits between them, and does what he does best. He mediates.

“You two are going to tell me what happened, one at a time, _quietly_ , okay? We start with Sousuke. Go,” Makoto says, voice level. When Sousuke says nothing, Makoto gives him the look that makes him squirm until he caves.

“Fine, jeez, it’s nothing big though, Rin’s just being a _baby_ -”

“Look here, you overgrown bastard -”

Makoto’s big brother voice makes an appearance for a stern, “Sousuke.”

“- ugh, fine, Rin’s just being… overly cautious. I don’t need to be _coddled_.”

“Why would Rin think you need to be coddled?”

“Because Rin thinks I’m as breakable and fragile as he is, I don’t fucking know,” Sousuke snarls, but it lacks heat.

“ _Sousuke_.”

“Because something happened. On a call out. Last week. That was kind of bad.”

“Are you going to explain or are we going to Rin for that?”

Sousuke looks at the table, and Makoto has his answer. He turns his stern gaze to Rin, who manages to last longer in it, but still caves.

“It was a domestic thing. There were four of us there, but the guy - the guy was drunk, and _pissed,_ and he went straight for Sou, knocked him about, he - _fuck_ , Mako, he had his hands around Sou’s neck and it took _all three of us_ to get him off and - and Sou was in pain, and he will never fucking talk about his pain, never open up to me about anything that hurts him, and he’s still sitting over there acting like it never fucking happened!”

“Because it’s not important! Nothing happened to me, and I’m _fine_ , but you won’t believe me!”

“Sou? You realise this is the sort of thing that would worry us even if we weren’t going out, right?" Makoto asks softly. Sousuke huffs. "That has to have been really scary, and it’s not something that anyone should have happen to them. It’s understandable if you don’t want to talk about it to us, okay, but that’s traumatic, Sou, and Rin has a pretty strong reason to be worried.”

“Sousuke, you have to let us worry about you - because it’s you and no-one wants to see you hurting, and we especially don’t want to see you hurting and struggling all on your own, because that’s what we’re here for!”

“You’re not here to be another set of parents for me!”

“Sou, just humour me for a second, okay - what if it was Rin?”

Sousuke's expression turns from dark to vulnerable very quickly, but he tries his best to keep looking pissed.

"What if it was Rin, Sousuke?" Makoto asks, more delicate this time, because even though he knows what Sousuke is about to feel will hurt, it's necessary if he's going to understand their concern. He's sure that Sousuke isn't deliberately being cruel, but he also knows that there is very little time before these two blow up again, and honestly, he just wants to get to the point.

And then Sousuke looks at Rin - _really_ looks at him, like he’s cataloging everything from Rin’s expression to the pores on his nose and the sparse freckles under his eyes, and he looks down again. Makoto gets uncomfortable at that, because maybe he's just made it worse, maybe he's not as good at mediating as he thought - he doesn't want Sousuke to hurt again. It takes him a while to speak, but it’s understandable when he does.

“Don’t get hurt, Rin.”

Rin rolls his eyes, but he offers Sousuke a little chuckle. “I won’t, you big softie. But can you see why I was -”

“Yeah. Yeah. Shit, Rin, how did you deal with that for months on end - _fuck_ , I’m a dick, Rin, _shit_ -”

“- Sou, it’s okay now, alright? I don’t blame you - never blamed you - love you, Sou, could never blame you,” Rins words fall out like a chant as he stands up and brings Sousuke’s head towards his stomach, letting him clutch at the material of the shirt of his back and breathe him in.

“Mako, Mako, you too, _shit_ , you too, you’re always in danger, always so far away, we can’t protect you Mako,” Sousuke borderline begs, and Makoto doesn’t waste any time clinging to Sousuke’s other side, nuzzling his head as he and Rin remind Sousuke that they’re all okay.

They spend the rest of the evening quiet, subdued, but most of all, doting on Sousuke. Sousuke takes it, for once, without complaint. He lets them cook his favourite food for him, he chooses what they watch as they doze in light blankets on the sofa, and he responds honestly - for once - when they ask him soft questions about how he’s doing. He kisses them, frequently, to know that they’re still there, and they kiss him back, to make sure that _he’s_ still there.

 

* * *

 

They deal. It’s tense, and it makes Makoto uneasy, because everything has been so easy up until now, and he’s unused to having to tiptoe around the two of them. But their non-verbal communication has rubbed off on him over the past few months, and it only takes a couple of days before he relaxes after seeing that they have relaxed into each other again.

Then its all easy touches and conversation, and Makoto forcing the other two to take safe-for-family selfies with him so that he can show his family (Rin has no problem with this, but Makoto only manages to get Sousuke to smile genuinely by getting Rin to tickle him while he’s taking the photo).

And then Makoto is off to see his family, with goodbye kisses and lingering hand holding until he’s on the train and speeding away from them.

They get lonely quick, and end up wondering how they managed before Makoto, but they have each other and their jobs to keep them busy. They fall into a comfortable routine, and it’s the most they’ve been in their own apartment in months. It feels weird, and it smells wrong, Rin decides, and so they sleep at Makoto’s place (they’d say it was because they were there feeding Mako’s cats late anyway, but they’re painfully in love with their boyfriend and they wouldn’t deny missing him if asked, honestly). Makoto sends them pictures of him with the twins, and him at the kitchen door with him mum cooking in the background, and at night he sends them pictures that he has to delete as soon as they’ve sent, but it gives them fuel for the nights they pine for him.

When he comes home, he’s happy and tired and they take the day off so that they can all sleep and eat and enjoy each other, Sousuke’s broad chest serving as Makoto’s pillow, and Rin’s smaller body acting as his blanket. He couldn’t feel more loved or at home between the skin of the people he loves most - until Elm makes his home on a spare patch of Makoto’s stomach, and Makoto doesn’t feel like he’s left his family so much as he’s just returned to it again. There’s nothing stopping the feeling of family nesting in his chest, just where his heart rests.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i like to think that all sousuke needs is to look at things from another direction and i think that if rin cant do it makoto does it by being Big Brother Mamakoto
> 
> cuddlebros.tumblr.com to fight with me about everything including headcanons like whatever (also this hasnt been beta'd so if there are mistakes or it reads awkward don't hesitate to tell me!)
> 
> (edit: thank you to mydickisthealpha for pointing out some errors!)


	6. kou joins the fray

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kou comes to visit, and Rin is facing the consequences of being stubborn.

What becomes apparent very quickly is that Rin, as the most impulsive of the three, is the one who is most often bed-ridden. Consequently, he’s the one most often doted upon. Sousuke _tries_ to keep an eye on him, honestly, but when their shifts are on different days, or they end up partnered with someone else, it’s impossible.

It’s frustrating and taxing for Makoto that he can’t do much apart from text them both in between call-outs and training just to check that they’re staying out of trouble. He can’t be with them like they can be for each other, but when he returns home exhausted and worried to find the two of them bickering over what Sousuke’s cooking that night – the relief is immeasurable.

But the main risk to Rin’s health is his ability to back down from a challenge. Aomine, it seems, isn’t afraid to give Rin ridiculous dares, both in the office and out on patrol, even though he _knows_ that the wrath it’ll incur from Sousuke will be both furious and unstoppable. But Aomine is cheeky, and childish, and _foolish_ , so he continues issuing ever increasingly dangerous dares.

 _That_ is how the next family visit ends up with Kou coming to visit _them_.

They’re spared from having to seriously decide where she’d stay while she’s visiting by Rin, who ends up making the decision for them, being stuck in Makoto’s bed with some strange breed of illness brought on from _another_ dare. This one apparently involved Rin standing in a fountain at the end of his shift for around 15 minutes (it was the beginning February and still chilly, so Aomine _was_ going to pay for this one, Sousuke was going to make sure of it).

Kou is a sweetheart, is Makoto’s first realization. She doesn’t appear to be surprised in the least that her brother is living with his childhood friend and another man in an apartment that clearly only has one bed (one mattress, really. Zero beds). She bonds quickly with Makoto’s cats, and talks freely with both Sousuke and Makoto while her brother sleeps off his fever. Makoto feels like he’s known her for years by the end of her first day with them.

From the discussions they share, Makoto learns that Kou is also a _total badass_. She’s in college, studying physiology, and manages her university swim team on the side - “a huge freaking honour,” Rin raspily informs him, “‘cause she’s the only student to ever get voted in.” (She tells him to shut up and save his voice, but she’s visibly happy at the pride in his voice and the way he fondly ruffles her her hair in retaliation.) Makoto is drawn by her determination in what she does, because it’s such a reflection of her brother that it’s clear as day that he’s her idol. The siblings mirror each other so much, and Makoto is happy that it stretches to Sousuke and himself.

Kou fusses over them all - Sousuke takes it all in his stride, but it flusters Makoto a little. He’s always been the fusser, especially when it comes to little siblings, so he ends up having to find solace in helping out with her efforts to nurse Rin to health. His kitchen skills are still woefully basic, so Kou only allows him the fool-proof duties when it comes to making soup. Sousuke rewards him with grinning kisses for a job well done, which doesn’t go amiss either.

But her visit only lasts a few days, and then she’s back off to studying again, and Rin pouts even harder than he had when he was ordered to stay in bed, following her around on her last day with a whine in his voice and a slump in his step. When Sousuke returns from work that last evening, the siblings are napping on the couch curled around each other, looking more adorable than any two grown humans have any right to, in his opinion. He takes a quick photo to send to the on-duty Makoto, captioned, “ _came home to two new cats. made their home on the couch._ ” He’s sure Makoto’s response of, “ _!!! can we keep them???? pleeeeeease sou_ _(_ _っﾟ_ _Д_ _ﾟ_ _)_ _っ_ “ doesn’t capture the depth of Makoto’s desire to rush home and be cuddled with them. (The fact he gets another text soon after, “ _thats gonna make the next 5 hours really hard, you meanie (_ _థ_ _ｪ_ _థ_ _)_ ” backs that up.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have problems with this but im sorry as can be about that and also about the fact that updates are going to take so long and that this is very short  
> things are things
> 
> (if you see issues please let me know because its very very likely there will be)
> 
> cuddlebros.tumblr.com if you want to know about the things that are things sometimes


	7. are you even allowed cats here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin and Sousuke meet Makoto's landlady. She's very... _accommodating_.

While the other two flit around cleaning in preparation of the visit of Makoto’s landlady, Rin has time for idle thoughts to drift to him. It's been impossible to shift him from his comfortable spot on Makoto’s couch all day, so the other two have given up on moving him anytime soon, because he  _very_ quickly settled for zoning out while they were trying to cajole him into joining in with the dirty work.

One of the thoughts that strikes him (probably prompted by Elm coming to rest on his chest as a warm bundle of droopy, sleepy fluff) is that Makoto has _so many cats_ , and he rents his apartment, so is he _really_ allowed all these feline friends? Makoto isn’t exactly a rule breaker (look at who he’s dating), but when it comes to cats, he’s been known to do things that other people may have considered… out of the ordinary. Like hanging upside down for a truly extraordinary length of time with a stranded cat in his clutches.

“Hey, Makoto, are you actually allowed pets here?”

Makoto stills with his dusting. “Uh.”

“Oh _no_ , Mako,” Rin groans.

“But -”

“No Makoto, this is -”

“Your landlady is coming over sometime today, isn’t she? How are we going to hide 9 cats, Tachibana?” Sousuke pipes in.

“Uhm, well, the landlady likes me?” Makoto questions, shuffling a little uncomfortably on his feet.

“Makoto, I don't think even _we_ like you enough to let you get away with _nine_ illegal cats,” Rin says.

“You guys don’t love me!” Makoto wails.

“We love you, but we're police officers.”

“And Rin _is_ married to the law, so.” Sousuke shrugs.

“Shut up, moron,” Rin snaps back at him, before turning to Makoto, “we need a plan!”

“No, you guys don't understand, the landlady _really_ likes me.”

“Mako.”

“Mako.”

“...what?”

“Help us hide the cats, Mako.”

“But -”

“Oh _Makoto!_ ” comes a lively voice from beyond the front door, and Makoto automatically walks towards it, leaving two mildly panicked boyfriends behind to hustle together a hasty plan of action.

“ _Shit_.”

“ _Shoot_.”

“ _Abort cat hiding mission_ ,” Sousuke declares, before diving (pretty impressively) over the sofa to hide behind it. Rin joins him, after placing Elm quickly and carefully on warm patch of sofa he just vacated. They both peep from their spot to eavesdrop on what promises to be a _very_ interesting exchange.

“Oh Mrs. Itou, it’s so nice to see you again!”

“You too, Tachibana! It has been quite some time, young man. Have you been avoiding me?" she questions playfully. Before he has a chance to even open his mouth, she questions him again. "Do you still have that cat you rescued from a tree the other day?”

“Yes ma’am!”

“Oh, good! You’re such a nice young man, honestly!”

“Ah, thank you ma’am, but it really wasn’t…” Makoto trails off as he flushes and rubs at the back of his neck.

“But son, I think you should tell your two young gentleman callers to come out of hiding and meet me.”

Makoto doesn’t question how she knows. She seems to know everything, and has done ever since he moved in – she took one look at him and dragged him away from unpacking boxes to have some tea and a deep conversation about the best friend he had left behind, so he knows that she has some sort of ability to just _know_ things.

So he knows better than to question _how_ she knows, or _what_ she knows, and settles for succumbing to her and weakly calling out to the two boys who he assumes are probably crouched behind the sofa for fear of distressing the little old lady who was _undoubtedly_ going to be scared stiff by the appearance of two strange, strapping (and admittedly, pretty scary) men at the doorway of one of her favourite tenants.

When they sheepishly shuffle into view, Sousuke leads with, “hello, ma’am,” and Rin follows with “a pleasure to meet you!”

She visibly stifles her giggles with her hand, and Makoto has to hold back a groan. “Oh my! So polite! Our Makoto has done quite well for himself here, hasn’t he?” Playful old ladies will definitely be the end of him.

“Mrs. Itou, please…”

In true landlady style, she carries on regardless, and Makoto is _convinced_ that he can hear a hint of a smirk in her voice. “I always worry about this one! He was so lonely when he got here, spent all his time pining after his best friend... it’s nice to see he’s made such nice friends…”

“Ah, yes… well…”

“Well, anyhow, I was baking earlier, and I just wanted to drop you off some cake – here, Makoto,” she says, passing him a Pyrex dish that contains nearly half a cake along with a plastic bag that contains something undisclosed, and then shoo-ing him into the kitchen to put it down, “and now I’d best be on my way out - but you boys come up to me sometime for some proper dinner, yes?”

“Yes ma’am!”

“Thank you!”

“It’s no bother, but you two - please take good care of that decent little soul for me. Heaven knows he won't do it himself and he needs as much love as he can get, these days,” she smiles a little sadly at some space behind them, before patting the two of them on the arms and finishing with, “well, this little old lady is off to see if there really _is_ a discount on tea today, so see you boys soon!” She leaves with a wave and a wink, and begins her toddle down the stairs.

They return to the kitchen, a little shell-shocked, and return to Makoto, who is still pretty flustered. Silence reigns for a few moments.

“Oh my god,” Makoto whines into his hands.

Rin looks into the bag and sighs. “She left us cat food without us noticing. Enough cat food for... I'd say 9 cats? For at least a week. She _left us cat food_.”

Sousuke chimes in with, “and people food.”

“And orders, Sousuke.”

“Huh?”

“Very true. Well then, we had better show a certain ‘ _decent little soul_ ’ some love, huh?” he says with a smirk.

“Wait, what?”

A confused and flustered Makoto is swiftly smothered in kisses ranging from doting to feverish, and he finds it hard to wonder about what Mrs. Itou had said to the two of them, just thankful for the fact that they’re around to smother him.

Somewhere in the living room, Elm meows his distaste at being abandoned by his comfortable human pillow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im sorry about how short chapters have been recently, and also if there has been a noticeable decrease in quality. im planning something nice and festive (which may be the end?) so hopefully that will make up for it?
> 
> as always - please point out any glaring errors, weird phrasing etc.
> 
> also you can shout at me at cuddlebros.tumblr.com where i post the chapters as well!


	8. christmas, cuddling, and crappy dancing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's winter time, and our dashing lads do many things to celebrate this.

Early November rides the coattails of hard work and a long autumn. Time has been running rings around them, but the cold weather – thankfully – seems to slow things down until they begin to become something that is much closer to manageable.

In months running up to December, they have dinner with Makoto’s landlady around 13 times - each time ending with a different inappropriate insinuation, and Makoto turning a different shade of red. (Which, after the first few visits, begins to both astound and amuse both Rin and Sousuke.)

They manage their way through Halloween unscathed. All of Makoto stays the right way up this year.

Many people try to claim the credit for this.

The chief states that the feat of keeping Makoto out of harm’s way boils down to _his_ brilliant initiative in making sure he was accompanied at all times during his shift. Taiga suggests that it was _his_ distraction techniques (food) that stop Makoto from being able to fixate too long on any stray animals. Shouyou rather gallantly insists that it’s all down to Teppei’s careful, watchful eye, and the way he was always looking out for Makoto on duty – “his eyes are like _zoom – there he is,_ or, or, _shwoo – there he is again,_ or _shwish – there he goes - wait where’s he going,_ and he sees everything, _everything_!”. It becomes a sort of competition at the station, much to Makoto’s embarrassment.

(The truth is, Rin and Sousuke are probably the ones who deserve the most credit, because before he leaves for work the morning of Halloween, he’s sat down for a full 10-minute lecture from his boyfriends, briefly outlining how to avoid what _they_ feel are the main areas of concern for the day: how to _not_ get caught up in his equipment while scaling a tree; how to safely untangle himself if he managed to get caught anyway; a list of reasons _not_ to climb trees in the dark; and finally (arguably the most important point); strict orders to not fall in love with anyone who came to save him. He can’t help but obey.)

* * *

"So, Christmas shifts," Sousuke calls into the kitchen.

Makoto turns off the tap so that he can hear better, and starts drying dishes as he speaks. "Well, I worked them last year, so the chief said I wasn't allowed within 500 metres of the station this time around," he laughs weakly.

"Good. That’s you sorted.”

“Sorted?”

“We’ve decided that we want you to ourselves this Christmas."

"You two have talked about this?"

"Of course."

"Of course," Makoto echoes with a chuckle. "What about you two?"

"Mmh, well, if you’re not working, then Kagami’s probably working, right? If he’s working, then Aomine will be working too, so there’s at least one guy for sure at the station. They tend to need at least a couple guys around Christmas, and they tend to want the bigger ones especially."

"A lot of fights and things around the holiday season?"

"Bingo," Sousuke says, aiming his gun-hands at the doorway, where Makoto is leaning on the doorframe, arms crossed, gazing lovingly at the reclining figure on his sofa.

"So they'll want you two, then."

"Mmh. Me more so than Rin, but yeah. But I think he said he was going to make some kinda deal with some of the single guys, though. Leverage some time off."

Makoto makes his way behind Sousuke on the sofa. He absentmindedly cards his fingers through the soft black hair in front of him. "You two are so thoughtful," Makoto sighs, before draping himself over his boyfriend.

"Someone has to be.”

“You though, you’re the cheekiest. I finished washing up.”

"Thanks. Any requests for dinner tonight? We have a full fridge, for once."

"Beef. Spicy beef."

“You’re too good to him.”

“He has a late day today! And you’re the one who’s going to cook it, so I think we’re both equally indulgent.”

Sousuke hmphs, but pecks Makoto on the cheek with a smile before he peels him from his shoulders and heads into the kitchen.

* * *

It’s a week into December, and Rin and Makoto are taking inventory of all the chores that need to be done that week. (Well, that’s what they _should_ be doing, but what they’re _actually_ doing is finding all the cats and trying to keep them all in one place so that they can have a cat blanket. It’s almost as important. It’s a plan for saving on the heating bills.)

A knock on the door, several disgruntled cats (and one disgruntled Rin) later, he’s facing a deliveryman with a clipboard and a “delivery for a… M. Tachibana?”

“Uh, that’s me?”  Makoto questions, signing off for the delivery anyway. “Thank you! But it’s funny… I don’t remember ordering anything…” The delivery man shrugs and heads out, leaving Makoto none the wiser.

“That’s ‘cause you didn’t,” Rin says, patting Makoto on the back as he heads into the hallway.Then the sound of shuffling, dragging, and soft grunting reaches him, and knowing Rin, he feels the mild panic that the noises stirs up is justified.

“Rin, Rin, Rin, what are you doing?”

“I’m making it _Christmas_ , Makoto! Surprise!”

And what a surprise it is.

Rin is standing in the middle of the hallway, grin beaming, feet bare, covered head to toe in cat hair, in the shadow of a 7-foot tall pine tree that’s just a _tiny_ bit too tall out in the hallway, but will probably fit _just_ right in their living room.

It probably says a lot about their relationship that Makoto only spends a few seconds gaping at the sight before bounding over like the overgrown puppy he is to start simultaneously helping Rin drag the thing indoors and pepper him in kisses as thanks.

* * *

“Okay, well this isn’t your main gift, guys, but I just thought – well, it’s Christmas, and what better time than now?” he laugh nervously, fiddling with the hem of his (truly horrific) Christmas jumper.

 “For what?” Sousuke asks with a frown, watching Makoto rise to fiddle around behind the back of the sofa and produce two plain, navy blue boxes.

“Open the box!”

“Both of us?”

Makoto nods furiously, ridiculous grin threatening to split his face as he gazes at the bemused faces of the two loves of his life.

“A…”

“…key?”

“Yeah!”

“Mako…?”

“Yeah.”

“Is this…?”

“Yeah.”

“Say something other than yeah!” Rin demands.

“Well, you two practically live here anyway, and it’s been almost a year now, so I thought _maybe_ it’d be nice if you… never had to leave,” he suggests, bashful even though he knows he doesn’t need to be, not with these two.

“We barely leave now!” Sousuke laughs softly, a little looser from the slightly alcoholic hot chocolate he’d convinced Makoto to make, grabbing him affectionately around the shoulders.

“Sometimes you go home to dust, and stuff!” Makoto insists, “and you’ve never had a key before, and I thought it’d be nice if you stopped stealing the spare one I keep on top of the doorframe…”

“That wasn’t me.”

“Or me.”

“Oh dear god.”

“You have to stop doing that, Makoto,” Sousuke demands, shaking the box at him with his free hand, serious expression dead set on his face. “You’re way too trusting.”

Rin stares at him. “Did we not tell you to stop doing that like 3 months ago? Now we’re all going to need new keys!”

“…Merry Christmas?”

“Merry Christmas, you damn dweeb.”

“Wait, you guys didn’t sa-“

Rin rolls his eyes. “ _Yeah_ , we’ll move in with you.”

“Merry Christmas, Makoto.”

* * *

They must look like some kind of holiday postcard. A bizarre, niche, holiday postcard, but Makoto assumes that they must look picture worthy nonetheless.

Snow is falling thick and fast outside, and they’ve all been watching it intermittently during the afternoon. Come evening though, they’ve traded the frosted window for the warmth of a couple of shared blankets on the sofa. Rin is dozing away, resting comfortably on Sousuke’s chest with feather soft snores escaping him every now and then. Sousuke, ever the pillar of warmth in the middle, is playing idly with Rin’s hair with one hand while stroking his fingertips up and down Makoto’s bicep with the other.

It was a shame that such a cute scene had to be broken up, and Makoto’s groggy limbs complain when he moves (under the weight of many glasses of eggnog and cookies that they’d all baked, decorated and eaten not long ago) but the radio is on and he’s a sucker for cheesy Christmas songs. It’s tough to drag Sousuke out from under Rin without waking him, but it’s worth it for the smiles that make their way onto both of their faces, shuffling around the limited space of the living room. They’re at least half a beat behind the music, but wrapped in each other’s arms and enchanted in each other’s gaze, it doesn’t really matter.

“This is nice,” Makoto murmurs into the space between Sousuke’s shoulder and his neck.

Sousuke’s response of “mmh” rumbles his chest so much that Makoto has to giggle.

“That tickles!”

“Mmh.”

“Stop it!” he laughs, quietly enough that he hopes it won’t disturb Rin.

They continue swaying past torn wrapping paper, around wandering and sleeping cats, ending with a flourish behind the sofa, as Sousuke twirls Makoto and dips him a little with a grin. They come back to stand as the song finishes, and rapturous applause begin from the sofa.

“Bravo,” says a droopy eyed, ruffled looking Rin. “Spell-binding, engaging, perfectly executed – I expect brilliant things from the Yamazaki-Tachibana duo in the future.”

“Quit yakkin’ and come and join us, you snarky bastard,” Sousuke grumbles, holding out a hand towards him.

“But ‘m comfy here,” Rin drawls.

“It’s comfier up here, I promise.”

Rin joins them, slowly, and they make a haphazard attempt at three-man slow dance, and even through their moves are sloppy and trying to move three people at once in a smooth motion is challenging, they also manage to have a ridiculous amount of fun.

They collapse into a pile of semi-intoxicated giggles just before midnight, falling asleep in a pile reminiscent of the ones they used to form on the regular.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's not exactly the _longest_ thing in the world, but here we have it: some christmassy segments out of the life of the soumakorin
> 
> as someone who has never actually celebrated christmas, i feel like there are probably more things i coulda written but im unsure of what they are. im not averse to adding scenes to this post-posting, tbh
> 
> ive been trying to edit this for two weeks straight, so i'll gladly take note of any and all edits i need to make when you inevitably see them
> 
> this fic is getting weird


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Makoto gets hurt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning: this chapter contains discussion of injury

It’s a habit of Sousuke’s to don a small smile whenever he sees Makoto’s caller ID. Honestly, he wonders if there’s anyone out there who _wouldn’t_ cheer up at the sign of his call – or the cheekily snapped photo of Makoto and Rin asleep that accompanies his name.

He’s smiling when he answers, and he smiles up until he realises the voice on the other end isn’t Makoto’s. His face falls as he hears Kagami plead with him not to panic. He can feel dread take hold of his heart in dark tendrils, yanking on it until he feels it plummet.

“Don’t panic,” Kagami reiterates, “but there’s… there was an incident. Makoto….”

Sousuke panics.

* * *

To Makoto, worry is second nature. He’s always had someone to worry about – his tiny little siblings, his parents, Haru, and now his boyfriends – and to some extent, Rin can sympathise. He’s always had Kou, and their mother, and he has always, _always_ worried for Sousuke.

But it isn’t the same for Sousuke. He’s only ever had to worry about Rin, and that was hard enough in and of itself (how many times had he heard that Rin could “take care of himself” only to have to crawl into his bed and hold him through sobs that he refuses to ever discuss?).

Now that he has two people so deeply embedded into his life, when worry comes to him, it’s deep rooted and intense. He barely manages to right himself as he scrambles off of the sofa, bounding quickly and uncharacteristically clumsily to attempt to find Rin. It vaguely registers with him that he hasn’t hung up the phone, but the sound of it clunking to the floor suggests that that won’t be too much of an issue.

Sousuke’s concern and disorientation catches Rin’s eye as he sees him, and he knows that he has to calm him down before he can discern what the problem is.

It takes a good few minutes of deep breathing led by Rin’s example before Sousuke can speak.

“Kagami called. From Mako’s phone. He – we need to go to the hospital.”

Rin just nods, and the two of them silently scuttle around for shoes and coats and keys before rushing out of the door and on towards their place by Makoto’s side.

* * *

Makoto had honestly just been doing his job. He was standing where he was directed to stand, doing what he was directed to do, and wearing what he was directed to wear. There were no heroics involved – the surrounding area had long been evacuated anyway, so there would have been no need for any. They were only there to contain the fire as quickly as they possibly could, and keep it away from anything potentially dangerous.

The team were doing well, working in sync with teamwork that came easily from knowing each other for so long.

But things go wrong, and even with outstanding teamwork, there was always the risk of something not going quite to plan on a job. None of them knew of anything particularly dangerous, so when the side of the building spontaneously blew out, spewing glass and thick smoke through a gaping hole in the otherwise stable steel structure, no-one was prepared.

His team were quick to respond, though it took a while to locate Makoto and safely pull him out of the smoke. He was unconscious, but breathing, and thankfully the already present paramedics were just as quick to respond.

Kagami rode with him in the ambulance, trying hard to remember what the paramedics were saying to each other – _smoke inhalation, dermal abrasions, burns, embedded shards of glass, possible internal bruising_  – but when he finds Makoto’s phone and calls the first number on his recently called list, it’s a struggle to even manage what he does – “Don’t panic! But there’s… there was an incident. Makoto…”

He hears the phone on the other end of the call hit the floor, and buries his head in his hands.

* * *

The hospital doesn’t suit Makoto, is Rin’s first unintentional thought. The ward is too clean, too bright and too stark white. There’s no mistaking him, asleep on the bed, when he should always be almost indistinguishable from it. Makoto shouldn’t be alone while he sleeps.

Sousuke doesn’t stop to think. As soon as they see him, he’s observing everything that shouldn’t be around Makoto – that oxygen mask, that IV, all of those bruises and cuts and _oh,_ _god_ – and fighting the urge to get rid of them all and cling to him for dear life. He only takes a couple of steps towards the bed at first, only enough that he can watch the steady rise and fall of Makoto’s chest and know that he’s still there, alive, just sleeping.

* * *

Cracking his eyes open a little at a time, the ward is still too bright for Makoto when he awakens. Directly across from him, he can see an elderly man chatting to his family, and wonders why he’s in an old people’s home.

Then he hears snoring, and flexing his right hand tells him that someone else is holding it. Flexing his left hand yields the same result. It hurts to turn his head, but it’s worth it to find his two nearest and dearest slumped either side of him, Rin’s hair glowing slightly in the midday sun that’s still shining through the window, Sousuke’s skin slightly colder in the shadow of Makoto’s bed.

The nurse making rounds smiles at him, quietly welcomes him back into the world of the living and informs him that a doctor will be around in a while. He manages a nod. She moves on.

Rin stirs first, and when his eyes catch Makoto’s it’s clear as day that his worry has taken it’s toll. The ever blubbery man takes seconds to start crying, clinging with both hands onto Makoto as hard as he can.

“It’s okay, Rin. I’m okay,” he comforts him as well as he can, though it’s difficult to speak through the oxygen mask, and he can’t move either hand to pet his hair like he wants to. The words sound hollow, but Makoto means them. Rin tries to smile, but it wobbles, and he’s giggling through tears soon enough.

When Sousuke stirs, it’s the feeling of Makoto’s hand moving in his that he wakes to, and it’s so good to finally see him awake that he allows himself a couple of stray tears before he tries to hug Makoto as strong and delicately as he can.

They stay like that for a while, because neither of them can see the way Makoto winces as burns and wounds are touched, his still drowsy body not tensing like it normally would.

They only separate when the doctor comes to explain everything to Makoto. His hands are held the entire way through, but nothing could take all the fear out of the recounting of his injuries. He mentally thanks whatever is looking out for him that he's not hurt worse.

* * *

Makoto discovers very quickly that he is not the only mother hen of their relationship. He hurts, obviously – he’s still finding small shards of glass are working their way up to the surface of his skin, and no amount of painkillers can make it painless to have to dig them out – but he’s still not convinced that he’s _as hurt_ as Sousuke seems to think he is.

It’s nice, though, to have constant companionship. The two of them are taking turns on staying home with him, ‘constant supervision’ being one of many things the doctor had stipulated he needed before he was discharged.

From Sousuke, this means homemade soup every lunch, and Makoto’s favourite easy-to-eat breakfasts in the morning. They laze around, watching old re-runs of sitcoms that they both love, cuddling like Makoto wants and Sousuke needs. Every now and then, he’ll have to apply cream to Makoto’s burns, and every wince and mark on his body does strange things to his heart. He doesn’t ever want to see Makoto like this, never wants to see either of his lovers like this, but being able to see him improve day by day – it’s the only time he feels vaguely okay with the situation.

* * *

A few days after the incident, while Rin draws slow circles on his hand in bed, Makoto’s quiet voice comes from seemingly out of the blue.

“I always thought it would be one of you.”

“Eh?”

“That ended up in hospital,” Makoto clarifies. “I always thought it would be either you or Sou that would end up in hospital.”

Rin doesn’t know what to say.

“I’m glad it wasn’t.”

Rin still doesn’t know what to say.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you to tumblr user ooishi-makoto for giving me the idea of hurt!Makoto when i was scrounging for help to write another chapter!
> 
> thank you to TrickedThem as well for being so super supportive and always giving my stuff a much needed read-through!
> 
> here is where i apologise: im really, really sorry for the long break. there've been a lot of reasons for my absence, but i won't bore you with them. please accept my apology ^-^"
> 
> anyway, as always: if you see any spelling errors, weird phrasing, or things that need changing, please don't hesitate to let me know! and if you think that there are things that need improving in general, i'd appreciate constructive criticism!

**Author's Note:**

> ! will this be a long winded getting together, eventually fluffy, romance-y future!au? yessir.
> 
> you can find me at cuddlebros.tumblr.com most of the time!


End file.
